Hot Topic October sales comparison falls 2.6 pct

Clothing retailer Hot Topic says sales at stores open at least a year fell 2.6 pct in Oct.

• On 4:36 pm EST, Wednesday November 4, 2009

CITY of INDUSTRY, Calif. (AP) -- Hot Topic Inc. said Wednesday that sales at stores open at least a year fell 2.6 percent in October, beating a consensus forecast from Wall Street.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters, on average, expected sales at stores open at least a year to drop 3.5 percent.

Sales at stores open at least a year are a key measure of retailer performance because they measure growth at existing stores rather than from newly opened ones.

For the four-week period ended Oct. 31, total sales fell 1.8 percent to $63.6 million.

So far this year, total sales have slipped 0.1 percent to $522.5 million.

Shares closed earlier down 4 cents at $7.46, but jumped 4.4 percent to $7.79 in aftermarket trading after the news was released.